For years, friends and acquaintances have told me about meditating as a method of relieving stress and thinking clearly. I’ve been skeptical for years — that is, until recently.

During the fall 2014 semester, when my school workload was getting heavier and heavier, I decided to finally give it a try and see what it was all about, to help relieve my stress, and to help me fall asleep more easily.

I tried to accomplish this on my own, but I still could not quite get my head clear. I decided to search for a guide. This is when I fell upon Headspace.

I found the app randomly while searching the word “meditation” on the app store. It was the highest rated app, so I downloaded it immediately.

When I started the first lesson, I was surprised to hear a beautifully voiced British man guiding me through the meditation process. I can only imagine him being gorgeous based on his voice.

He said many things throughout the process that I found interesting, such as stressing focus on the body, including scanning the body to determine the sensation in each part, starting with my head and scanning all the way down to my toes.

He also said to attempt to count to 10 with my breaths. Doing this is way harder than it seems, because of how powerful the mind is and how easily it wanders off.

While I still have never managed to fully clear my mind of everything, thanks to Headspace, I am now able to analyze the space around me and analyze my body in a way that makes me forget all my troubles, even if very temporarily.

The app only gives 10 sessions, encouraging the participant to purchase the entire service for the full experience. However, the information given in the first 10 sessions is enough to grasp the basics of meditation.

To find out more about this glorious app and how meditation works from a scientific perspective, visit headspace.com.

To contact Clayton Mitchell, email sportswriter@occc.edu